Tuesday BP: What if the Dodgers win a 48-game season?

Hello and happy Tuesday to you.

We may or may not have a 2020 MLB season. But if we do, it’s increasingly looking likely that it will only be about 48 games.

Even if MLB played 100 games, this year would be remembered as the coronavirus season, and it would always come with that disclaimer. But if the season is just 48 games? Well that’s coming with an enormous asterisk.

Because I’m a masochist, I’ve been doing something I otherwise never do: Thinking about the Los Angeles Dodgers winning the World Series. As a San Francisco Giants fan, I do not want that to happen.

But I have to admit that it would be kind of funny. The powerhouse Dodgers, who have won 90 or more games in each of the least seven years but somehow always trip over their own shoelaces at the finish line, only being able to win a World Series in a pandemic-shortened season.

Finally winning a title, but having it be the title that no one really thinks of as being a legitimate championship. The title that makes everyone say, “Aww, that’s kind of cute.”

But then I think of the Dodgers just not being able to win, even in an upside-down season, and I find that even funnier.

Did Barry Bonds hit a home run today?

Yes.

June 9, 1997: Against the Florida Marlins, Bonds hit a 3-run home run in the 5th inning off of Pat Rapp, scoring Jose Vizcaino and Jeff Kent. It gave the Giants a 6-0 lead, and they would win 7-4. It was his 11th homer of the year.

More importantly, on this date in history he gave Roger Clemens a mean staredown after getting plunked.

Giants links

• Roger Munter looks back on some of the best 2B seasons in Giants Minor League history (There R Giants)
• Grant Brisbee looks back on three pitchers who had unlikely success against the Giants (The Athletic, subscription required)
• Maria Guardado ranks the top five relievers in franchise history (MLB)
• Kerry Crowley on how the Soderstrom family has a chance to become the first father-son duo to be taken by the same team in the first round of the draft (The Mercury News)
• Alex Pavlovic on the Giants new bullpens nearly being done (NBC Sports Bay Area)
• Podcast: Grant Brisbee and Andrew Baggerly discuss players who have ownage on other players (The Athletic, free)
• Alex Pavlovic on why the Giants might lean local in the draft (NBC Sports Bay Area)
• Mark W. Sanchez on how the Giants have prepared for an unprecedented draft (KNBR)
• Henry Schulman on how the Giants see themselves as having a more balanced 2020 Draft than they did in 2019 (SF Chronicle)
• Andrew Baggarly on the pitcher that had the most success against Barry Bonds during Bonds’ historic four-year run (The Athletic, subscription required)
• Alex Didion on how Buster Posey is the best first-round pick in franchise history (NBC Sports Bay Area)

Have a great Tuesday, one and all.